Department of Neurology Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University Jinan Shandong China.
Department of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Shandong Medical Imaging Research Institute Affiliated to Shandong University Jinan Shandong China.
Brain Behav. 2017 Jun 23;7(8):e00745. doi: 10.1002/brb3.745. eCollection 2017 Aug.
Subcortical vascular mild cognitive impairment (svMCI) is the predementia stage of subcortical vascular dementia (SVaD). The aim of this research is to explore and compare cerebral gray matter (GM) volume reduction in svMCI patients and SVaD patients, and to investigate the relationship between cerebral GM volume reduction and cognitive deficits.
Thirty one svMCI patients, 29 SVaD patients, and 31 healthy controls were recruited in our research. They conducted neuropsychological tests and brain structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examination. To detect cerebral GM volume reduction in svMCI patients and SVaD patients, we used statistical parametric mapping 8-voxel-based morphometry 8 (SPM8-VBM8) method to analyze MRI data. To detect the relationship between cerebral GM volume reduction and cognitive deficits, multiple linear regression analysis was used.
Compared with healthy controls, svMCI patients showed cerebral GM volume reduction in hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus, insula and superior temporal gyrus. Compared with healthy controls, SVaD patients exhibited more atrophy which encompasses all of these areas plus anterior and middle cingulate, inferior temporal gyrus, orbitofrontal cortex, and superior frontal gyrus. In svMCI patients, cerebral GM volume reduction correlated with memory loss, attention dysfunction, and language dysfunction; in SVaD patients, besides those cognitive deficits, cerebral GM volume reduction correlated with more cognitive impairments, including executive dysfunction, neuropsychiatric symptom, and depression.
Our findings prove that both svMCI patients and SVaD patients exhibit cerebral GM volume reduction and there may exist a hierarchy between svMCI and SVaD, and cerebral GM volume reduction in both svMCI patients and SVaD patients correlates with cognitive deficits, which can help us understand the mechanism of cognitive impairments in svMCI patients and SVaD patients, and diagnose SVaD at its early stage.
皮质下血管性轻度认知障碍（svMCI）是皮质下血管性痴呆（SVaD）的痴呆前阶段。本研究旨在探讨和比较 svMCI 患者和 SVaD 患者的脑灰质（GM）体积减少，并研究脑 GM 体积减少与认知缺陷的关系。
我们招募了 31 名 svMCI 患者、29 名 SVaD 患者和 31 名健康对照者。他们进行了神经心理学测试和脑结构磁共振成像（MRI）检查。为了检测 svMCI 患者和 SVaD 患者的脑 GM 体积减少，我们使用统计参数映射 8 体素形态计量学 8（SPM8-VBM8）方法分析 MRI 数据。为了检测脑 GM 体积减少与认知缺陷的关系，我们使用了多元线性回归分析。
与健康对照组相比，svMCI 患者的海马和海马旁回、岛叶和颞上回出现脑 GM 体积减少。与健康对照组相比，SVaD 患者表现出更广泛的萎缩，包括所有这些区域以及前扣带和中扣带、颞下回、眶额回和额上回。在 svMCI 患者中，脑 GM 体积减少与记忆力减退、注意力功能障碍和语言功能障碍相关；在 SVaD 患者中，除了这些认知缺陷外，脑 GM 体积减少还与更多的认知障碍相关，包括执行功能障碍、神经精神症状和抑郁。
我们的研究结果证明，svMCI 患者和 SVaD 患者均存在脑 GM 体积减少，svMCI 和 SVaD 之间可能存在一种等级关系，svMCI 患者和 SVaD 患者的脑 GM 体积减少与认知缺陷相关，这有助于我们理解 svMCI 患者和 SVaD 患者认知缺陷的机制，并在早期诊断 SVaD。
